About Essential Wisdom

Leslie Anderson is a C-Suite coach with 2500+ hours of coaching experience. She believes in the transformative power of coaching to impact not only the leaders she works with but everyone they interact with, too. Leslie works with senior leadership and their teams to quickly get to the heart of the issues, and guide leaders towards decisions that create cultures where both the organization and its people thrive.

She has an innate ability to engage, motivate, and support leaders to identify and align to their values and reach towards the best version of themselves. Leslie quickly builds rapport and trust across all levels of the organization and becomes a valued advisor to the senior leadership team. Her coaching and leader development approach considers the whole leader, the entire organizational system, culture, wellbeing and how one impacts/influences the other.

Her 10-year executive coaching practice has now expanded into training and development. Essential Wisdom was launched in 2024 with her partner, Tom Anderson. Essential Wisdom Coaching Skills for Leaders is their signature training program that is designed to teach leaders a coaching based leadership style. Essential

Wisdom is the culmination of their 50+ years in the space of leadership coaching and development, personal growth and building transformational experiences for leaders and their teams. Before launching Essential Wisdom, Leslie spent years with top brands known throughout their respective industries: Hermes of Paris, Burberry, Talbots, Hallmark, and CBIZ Talent & Compensation Solutions.

An entrepreneur at heart, Leslie launched her first company, Sovereign Hearts, in 2005. The multi-faceted company leveraged multiple revenue streams including visual merchandising, small accessories, as well as a graphic t-shirt line. Prior to this, Leslie began her career at Hermes of Paris, where she quickly rose through the ranks and was regularly selected to lead high-profile, high-value projects in several markets.

Leslie graduated Magna Cum Laude from Avila University with a Master of Science degree in Organizational Development (with an emphasis in Psychology & Coaching) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Merchandising & Business from the University of North Texas.

She certified in multiple assessments: Barrett Values Index, Kolbe Index, Harrison Assessments, Social and Emotional Intelligence Assessment by The Institute for Social and Emotional Intelligence (ISEI). Leslie is a Wisdom Hunger Practitioner – leadership via an integral approach, the curriculum of Ramon Corrales, Ph. D.

Tom Anderson has 35+ years serving in senior leadership roles in the commercial and multifamily real estate industry and is currently a Senior Vice President for one of the country’s largest developers of affordable and workforce housing.

Recognized as a stabilizing yet motivational force in startup, turnaround, and growth initiatives within both for- profit and nonprofit environments, Tom has a natural ability to make sense out of chaos and bring synergy to teams and an organization’s realization of purpose and vision.

Inspired by his own personal experience of a nine-day wilderness quest, Tom subsequently trained as a wilderness guide and for the past 15-years, has designed and lead nature-based personal growth and leadership development workshops and retreats. His dual paths of senior business leader and wilderness quest guide, make Tom uniquely qualified to support others in their search for lives of significance, meaning, and purpose.

Tom is a graduate of Florida State University with Bachelor of Science in Finance and Real Estate. He is certified in Barrett Values and The Wisdom Code.